


How To Be Ninja

by Tabbyluna



Series: Fictober 2020 [5]
Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Gen, Ninjas - Freeform, Post-Canon, The OC is just there for convenience, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:28:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26834467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabbyluna/pseuds/Tabbyluna
Summary: Hana had a destiny to fulfill. But what happens when her confidence begins to wane?
Relationships: Hana Stoppable & Yori (Platonic)
Series: Fictober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947136





	How To Be Ninja

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, I'm writing something that's *not* Skylanders! Yeah, this was written around the time my family finished watching Kim Possible together. And I tried to portray things as respectfully as I can, but y'know. Fiction, creative licenses, the fact that it was a cartoon made in the early 2000s and hence wouldn't be the most culturally sensitive. If it helps, I'm Asian and I wasn't terribly offended by it. But yeah. I dunno. If it is terribly objectionable, please tell me so that I may do better in the future. And with that said, enjoy.

The summer before she was supposed to begin high school, Hana got a letter in the mail. It was an invitation for her to take part in some sort of elite private school, all the way in Yamanouchi in Japan. “Only the best of the best are invited to attend”, it boasted. “We hope that you consider our offer and we hope to see you attending Yamanouchi High School.”

Ron encouraged her to go. Told her that it would be a good opportunity. She’d get to live in Japan for a while, experience the culture there as a student instead of a tourist. And he heard plenty of great things about the school. “You’re a talented girl Hana, and I know that this is just the place for you to cultivate them.” 

And he had a point. The pamphlet boasted that the school had a competitive academic curriculum, and Hana graduates middle school at the top of her class. It claimed that they had programmes which taught martial arts, and Hana had been collecting belts of all colours since she was seven.

Hana did want to go too. Her family always made sure that she kept in touch with her cultural roots through frequent trips to Japan over the summer. But for some reason, they never went to Yamanouchi despite it being where she was born. It would be nice to live there for a while. She’d also been on several missions with Ron and Kim in the past, and a few brought them to Japan. That was how she knew the lady currently running the school, and Yori was pretty cool. She had been trying to teach herself Japanese since she was nine, and was pretty proud of how fluent she was.

But most important of all, she knew where her destiny was headed towards. It was why she wanted to take up so many different types of martial arts at a young age. Why she aspired to do well in school. She had read all about her destiny and her powers. Yori and Sensei had told her all about them, ever since she was a little girl. There were great evils coming. Evils beyond their comprehension. And Hana knew that she would have to be the one to stop them.

So it was agreed. In August, she was placed on a plane to Japan. There, she was to go through intensive private training until the new school year for Japan in March the next year. At least, that was the plan discussed with Yori over a video call.

Since Yori would be busy running the school, as well as helping Kim and Ron save the world from time to time, most of the training was to fall on a teacher Yori assigned to her. Her name was Rika, and Hana would first meet her at the airport when she came to pick her up. 

She got off the plane tired after a long flight. Hopefully when she got to the school, she could have a meal and some sleep. It was all she was thinking about. That was, until someone grabbed her by the wrist, and put her in an armlock. “Hey!” Hana tried to struggle free, but ultimately could not.

“So this is the Han which Yori spoke so fondly of,” said the voice from behind her. Hana turned around, and saw a tall woman wearing a long white coat and thin-rimmed glasses. Her hair was cut into a short bob, and her mouth was curled into a frown. “I would have thought you would have been more cautious.”

That was how they first met. She introduced herself to Hana, and told her that she would be teaching her. “We boast a very rigorous curriculum in Yamanouchi. I hope you take advantage of this training period to catch up with your peers.” She gave her another tight-lipped glare. “May you learn some awareness in the process.”

The rest of the trip to the school was extremely awkward. Hana tried to joke with Rika, to break the ice a little. “Hey, it could have been worse. I could have gotten on the wrong plane.” But the woman merely responded to any of Hana’s jokes with a cold glare. Hana eventually stopped. She hadn’t even been in Japan for more than an hour, and she was already beginning to wish she stayed at home.

But once they reached the school, after a meal and a shower, Hana felt better. And she tried to look on the bright side. Hey, so what if she got off on the wrong foot with Rika? They had plenty of time to bond and befriend each other. First impressions aren't everything, anyways. By the end of their time training together, no doubt they would be getting along.

That night, she fell asleep on her tatami mat quickly. And in the morning, she woke up at the peak of dawn alongside the rest of the students.

*****

“Unacceptable, try again,” said Rika. It was the thirtieth time she was doing that particular maneuver (she counted), and Rika was still far from appeased with her performance. 

No matter what she did, it seemed like it was never enough for her. She was strict; she never praised her or encouraged her or even cracked a smile at her. And though Hana tried to remain optimistic about it - telling herself every night that tomorrow would be a brand new day for her to do better - she did have to admit, it was all rather discouraging.

But she still kept at it. She continued to fight on, to train. Maybe if she did it right this time, Rika would finally pay her a compliment every once in a while. And so that fueled her for the first few weeks. Hana liked making friends, and making people happy, and it did hurt her so when she couldn’t do that.

She would jog and she would practice punches and she would practice kicks. Again and again and again. But still nothing from Rika. Not even a nod. And more and more, she began to feel her motivation wane. By the end of those first few weeks, she had stopped telling herself that tomorrow was a brand new day. Out of exhaustion, she would crawl up to her mat, and fall fast asleep without a word to herself.

One morning, right before she was about to head off to her morning jog (two-hundred circles around the school), she felt a tap on her shoulder. “Hana?”

She turned around, and right behind her, smiling and covered head to toe in ninja uniform, was Yori. “Ah, good morning, Yori. Uh, I mean… Sensei.”

She chuckled. “Oh, simply Yori is fine. I was wondering if you have some time to talk a little bit?” 

“Oh, oh yeah sure. Yeah, I can talk.” Hana nodded her head. It was weird. Yori was technically her principal now, but she was still talking to her so casually. Most people in the school didn’t have this sort of relationship with her. Yet here she was. Getting invited inside to her office/meditation room. Being served tea. She took a sip, and had to admit that it was good tea.

“So, I have to wonder, how has your stay here been so far?” Yori took a sip out of her own cup of tea. “Have you been making friends?”

Hana was a little younger than most of the students there. Apparently, while kids in America began high school at around fourteen, kids in Japan only start high school when they’re around fifteen or older. Despite that, people did still treat her with respect. And she knew why. Most of the kids there were aware of her status as the Han. Hence why they never treated her as some kid, but as someone worthy of respect. Though Hana thought that they could sometimes be a little too respectful.

One time she tried to tell a joke to a small group of students, in an attempt to make friends. It was a deliberately lame joke. Yet no one groaned in irritation or laughed because it was so lame. Instead, they were all surprised at her. As if they never even expected her to be capable of cracking jokes. When she talked to any group of students, there was always this tension. Like the others around her were all carefully picking through their words, instead of being themselves around her.

“Well, it’s kind of hard to connect with them here honestly. Back home in Middleton, the kids don’t know a thing about my prophecies, so they all just treat me like a normal kid. But here… well, everyone knows who I am, and what I’ll accomplish someday. And I think some of them are scared to talk to me because all they see is this awesome human weapon instead of you know… a regular girl.” That was the true downside to being a prophesied figure. 

Yori nodded. “I see. How about your training? Are you coping well with it?”

“Mm… Well, not exactly? I mean, I am trying hard.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Yori smiled. “I see you train every day.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Hana said, “but see, the problem I have now is that I don’t know whether I’m actually improving. Rika trains me hard, but she hardly ever gives me any feedback or anything. She’s just telling me to do things over and over again.”

Yori nodded. “I see. Well, you have to know, but Rika has always been rather hard on herself. Back when we were both still students, she used to push herself to do things perfectly. Sometimes, she even worked harder than I did.”

A moment of silence. They both continued drinking their tea. “So, if she worked so hard, how come you got chosen to be Sensei’s star pupil?” It was probably the main reason why Hana had always been so impressed at Yori. From as young as fifteen, she had already been training under a great ninja master as his protege. She had assumed that it was all about attitude and hard work, and it was why she kept pushing herself to do better. But if Rika worked harder, then why did  _ she _ get chosen?

“You see, Hana. Hard work is only one part of the equation. At the end of the day, you also need to remember to work smart.” She lifted the teapot, silently asking if Hana wanted more. Hana nodded, and she filled her cup again. “Rika was pushing herself every day, but she admitted to me that she did not have a plan for herself. So early on, I decided that we needed to come up with a plan, so that we could improve together.”

“So what did you do?” Hana blew on her tea to cool it.

Yori smiled. “Well, we made an agreement to always strive to improve ourselves a little more each day, by trying to do a little better than we did the previous day. So no matter if we only improved by a little, or a lot, we at least knew that we had improved. And even on days when we were not able to meet or surpass the previous day’s efforts, at least we knew that it was possible for us to reach those heights.”

A sip of tea. “So, why don’t you try that?”

Hana thought about it. She swirled her tea, sipped it, finished her cup. “That… does sound like a good plan for improving one’s self.”

“I understand that Rika can be a hard person to please. But just know that your efforts are commendable, and you will improve with time.”

She left a little more prepared to handle the day’s training than before talking with Yori. After thanking her for the tea, she left to go on the jog around the school. And she managed to do all two-hundred laps under forty-five minutes.

**Author's Note:**

> Hana and Yori interacting more in the future is an idea which makes me very happy. And yeah, I kind of stole the wording of her advice from Naruto. I never even watched Naruto, I just heard about it from other people. But if you read it and thought that it sounded similar to Naruto, then... yeah it was partially based off of second-hand accounts of Naruto.
> 
> God, I sound like a cringey weeb.


End file.
